The sports industry’s willingness to innovate is palpable, with many sports properties today positioning themselves as bona fide technologists and blue-sky thinkers, and not only the hosts of sporting events. Whether it’s the implementation of new digital products to enhance the fan experience or the launch of their very own innovation unit, rights holders around the globe are diversifying their business acumen by taking ownership of their intellectual property (IP) and fan data, while some are positioning their brands as platforms for cross-sector research and amplifying the work of innovative startups.

For example, FC Barcelona cited the re-launch of the Barça Innovation Hub in February 2023 as “one of the most important decisions” the club made during the 2022/23 season, presenting a “new platform for investing in startups”. The move, according to the Spanish football giant’s Annual Report 2022-23, was part of its “aim of fostering entrepreneurial talent in the sports sector and capturing the value of its growth” within other sectors, too, such as the health and wellbeing industry, sports and entertainment, and sustainability. 

The UEFA Innovation Hub (UIH), established by European football’s governing body in 2018, also sits at the cutting-edge of innovation in the sector. Speaking on UEFA’s role in delivering innovation to its stakeholders, UIH manager Charles Frémont (pictured) explains that it’s “not only about adopting and implementing new technologies but about working on the culture as well” by integrating well-oiled innovation processes and methodologies into their daily operations. 

This extends to projects beyond football, including the UEFA Champions Innovate program, a groundbreaking initiative designed in collaboration with N3XT Sports to challenge entrepreneurs with improving the social and environmental impact of the men’s UEFA Champions League Final (UCLF) and to leave a lasting legacy in the host city. Having made its debut at Wembley Stadium in 2024, and ahead of its return for the 2025 UCLF in Munich, Charles says UEFA Champions Innovate acts as a “glue between stakeholders”, helping to realize UEFA’s ambition to deliver value to European football and its host cities and venues “beyond the 90 minutes of football”.

“N3XT Sports is instrumental to making UEFA Champions Innovate a success, especially as we needed that external party to help us challenge our assumptions when we were putting the program together.”
Charles Frémont, UEFA Innovation Hub (UIH) Manager

According to N3XT Sports research, although multiple European football clubs have invested in their own digital products and opened their own innovation departments, the majority do not yet employ an in-house innovation lead, with data published in our 2025 Digital Trends in the Sports Industry report indicating that more clubs in the Bundesliga (38.9 percent) and LaLiga (35 percent) hire innovation experts compared to those in Ligue 1 (22.2 percent), the Premier League (20 percent) and Serie A (10 percent).

This is evident despite our research also showing that the vast majority of top-flight clubs are home to digital-product managers and data specialists. This indicates that, while the sector is enjoying high levels of digital adoption and is home to multiple benchmarks for data and digital transformation, in-house innovation is still in its infancy for some. By comparison, 63.3 percent of National Basketball Association (NBA) franchises employ an innovation lead at the sharp end of the industry, whereas only 5.7 percent of the International Federations (IF) in the summer Olympic Movement do the same – highlighting the disparity between sectors. 

Speaking of the industry’s different approaches to innovation, and why some are prioritizing innovation and others are not, N3XT Sports Innovation Senior Consultant and co-founder Jordi Ferré says that there is a “greater incentive for private entities to increase their competitive advantage through innovation” whereas for Olympic bodies – including IFs and National Olympic Committees (NOC) – the objective is to “better manage their resources” based on medal targets and adopting technologies that “help make their operations more efficient”.

“One of the major challenges for NOCs is therefore to sustain engagement between events, particularly when there is so much interest during the Olympic Games,” Jordi continues. “There is an opportunity for the Olympic committees to help strategic federations to increase their fan engagement, including access to better tools and knowledge. While the right support and resources are vital for the success of national sports federations, innovation not only aids high performance, but holds an ability to nurture public participation in their respective sports.” 

The rise in sport’s innovation initiatives was highlighted during the latest edition of ThinkSport’s flagship industry event The SPOT (May 13) which explored the multiple ways in which innovation serves the sports sector. Among them, the Sport Innovation Challenge showcased solutions to sport’s “most pressing challenges”, including climate resilience and athlete care, while audiences were also presented with a deep dive into UEFA’s innovation drive, with insights from Joséphine Thury, UEFA’s Social and Environmental Sustainability Coordinator and UIH’s manager Charles Frémont.

N3XT Sports supports clients on various types of innovation projects across fan engagement, technology development, sustainability, and performance analysis. In 2021, N3XT Sports collaborated on the conceptualization and implementation of Italian football club Parma Calcio’s very own Performance and Analytics (P&A) Department, which has embedded new ways for the organization to innovate on and off the field of play within its data and digital transformation. 

As well as improvements to its player management, the initiative also serves the “development of strategic technology partnerships across the football sector, while highlighting interesting investment opportunities that broaden the club’s overall approach to innovation,” explains N3XT Sports CEO Mounir Zok, adding: “By re-imagining how the club uses performance data, Parma Calcio is showcasing, first hand, why an athlete-centric approach to innovation can be instrumental to driving excellence.”

Our team also works on the design and delivery of tailor-made innovation strategies for improving the fan experience, boosting performance, and driving commercial-revenue streams for elite sports clubs and organizers. For example, N3XT Sports delivered a comprehensive league-wide digital assessment of Euroleague Basketball, organizer of Europe’s top men’s club-basketball competition, including the implementation of the property’s bespoke innovation and investment roadmap.

Our team at N3XT Sports works tirelessly to develop and implement data and digital transformation strategies across a multitude of sports properties at federation level, competition level, and club level. To find out more about how N3XT Sports can serve your organization, fill out the form below, and we’ll be in touch. Our goal is to drive the digitalization of the sports industry and our clients.